Last days of DeJuan Blair?

With this year’s trade deadline is less than 24 hours away, it is possible — perhaps even probable — that forward DeJuan Blair has played his final game in a Spurs uniform.

The Spurs have been offering Blair at least a year, but have not yet been able to broker a deal. If they are willing to back off their reported demand for a first-round pick — as this Yahoo! Sports report indicates they might — there stands a reasonable chance Blair will be on his way elsewhere before the Spurs take the floor tomorrow night against the Clippers.

There are a handful of reasons Spurs general manager R.C. Buford might like to move Blair, who has been with the team since being drafted 37th overall in 2009.

Blair will be a free agent at the end of the season, and it would be better for the team to get some asset for him — even a low second-round pick — rather than lose him for nothing in the offseason. Assuming the team could move Blair now without taking a player back for him in exchange, it would also free space on the roster — currently landlocked at the maximum of 15 — should the Spurs choose to venture into the bought-out free agent market sure to open after the trade deadline.

(If the Spurs were to go the bought-out free agent route, keep in mind the current payroll of roughly $70.1 million is dangerously close to the luxury tax line of $70.3 million, and team management has been adamant about staying below it).

Elsewhere on the list of reasons to trade the 23-year-old Blair? He’s fallen out of the regular rotation after two-plus seasons as an on-again, off-again starter, and could probably use a fresh start. Though they wouldn’t compromise the business to do so, the Spurs wouldn’t mind moving Blair to a better situation as a favor to a player whose professionalism has improved with each successive NBA season.

Complicating any attempt to deal Blair is this summer’s looming free agency. Any team hoping to compete for his services need only wait until the offseason, then sign him without surrendering a trade asset.

* On the surface, Stephen Jackson’s expiring contract, worth about $10.1 million, would be an attractive trade chip to any team looking to cut costs and maneuver under the luxury tax line. That’s especially true in light of more punitive tariff rules that go into effect next season.

However, the same luxury tax concerns that make Jackson’s expiring deal attractive to other teams are the same concerns that might make it difficult for the Spurs to part with him. Intent on remaining under the tax line for the foreseeable future, the Spurs could be averse to taking on the kind of bad, long-term contract they would likely be required to bring back.

Toward to goal of maintaining financial flexibility going forward, it might behoove the Spurs more to hold on to Jackson and let his salary come off the books naturally this summer.

* With that in mind, it might not be a stretch to consider the Spurs out of the running for Atlanta forward Josh Smith, one of the biggest names available. Smith will be a free agent this summer, and is said to want a maximum deal the Spurs would be loathe to pay. Likewise, the Spurs don’t seem keen to give up the assets it will take to pry Smith away for what might about to a half-season rental.

* Though it appears unlikely the Spurs would shake the team up with a big, bold move — they do, after all, own the best record in the NBA right now — recall what happened at last year’s deadline. Despite owning the top mark in the Western Conference, Buford had no qualms with sending tarting small forward Richard Jefferson to Golden State for Jackson.

That deal, however, probably doesn’t go down without another trade that happened a few days earlier, when Jackson moved from Golden State to Milwaukee in the Andrew Bogut-Monta Ellis swap. Had that deal never occurred — had Jackson remained with the Bucks — it is highly unlikely the Spurs would have been able to land him at the deadline. Milwaukee, after all, had already traded Jefferson once before.

It often takes all kinds of dominoes falling in just the right way to consummate a trade. We saw that last year.